San Felipe, Baja, Mexico

May 16th Coordination Meeting Summary
By Luis Almodovar


On Friday, 16 May, the Coordination Meeting by the State Tourism Office, State Environment Office, the Tourism Developers Association of San Felipe and the Tourism Sector in San Felipe started just as scheduled. The initial welcome presentation was held by the state secretary of tourism, Oscar Escobedo Carignan. Right after, Ing Armando Arevalo president of the Tourism Developers Association gave an introductory speech. Next the assistants listened to a preliminary message by the state secretary for the Environment Socrates Bastida Hernandez.

The dynamic of the meeting was very flexible and allowed a dialog format, in which every party was expected to participate. The event that initially was planned to end by 11:30 am finished roughly after 2:00 pm due to the enormous amount of interaction and information among the attendants.

After Secretary for the Environment gave his introductory speech, in which he publicly announced the importance of the [soon to come] "Vaquita Marina Conservation Campain" which according to his words, "will center San Felipe in the eyes of the world" and this mandates the urgent deployment of certain tasks.

After the first question was made by the iisfac representative regarding the possibility of controlling the amazing polution problem that affects all beaches and confines of San Felipe region, the Secretary for the Environment clearly stated that a plan for getting San Felipe beaches certified by a program called Concepto de Playa Limpia - Clean Beach Concept - is underway. He also made quite an important statement regarding the conceptualization of the type of development foresight for San Felipe, which is called by this agency: The San Felipe Ecologically Friendly Concept.

Ing. Armando Ramos supported iisfac interest on the current state of SF beaches by stating this is one priority issue that goes hand in hand with heavy uncontrolled vehicle traffic in the SF sands. Ing. Armando Ramos also suggested the implementation of a Wrist campaign to get funds to reinforce the "Vaquita Marina Conservation Campaign". Hazael Sierra, delegado for San Felipe, informed the assistants about the date for an initial meeting concerning the Concepto de Playa Limpia certification, in a joint effort held by a designated committee called Comite de Playas Limpias, on 23 May. He made reference to confirmed economic resources being made available right after the Mexicali government signs an agreement wich will allow its commencement on the first days of June. These actions will include beach surveillance.

The Counter Admiral for the San Felipe Navy Port Station informed the assistants about current levels of contamination rising dramatically due to local sewer disposals coming from establishments adjacent to the local beaches. He announced that the Navy has already detected 3 mayor points of infection and will start taking action against those responsible for the illegal and irresponsible waste. He explained that imposing fines on people is not a final solution and he believes in a strategy that involves educationand prevention programs to eliminate the causes, accompanied by the application of the law. Ing Armando Ramos requested a meeting between the Mexicali Mayor and the developers to keep working on this sensitive issue.

A municipal government Regidor attending the meeting, mentioned that their point of view was to avoid creating complicated rules and it would be better to direct most efforts into making people and businesses aware and active about the problem.

Throughout the meeting both secretary for the Envoronment and secretary of Tourism invited the community to look after their natural resources and to realize the region's enormous ecologic tourism potential. They invited the assistants to be creative and to unite in order to generate very concrete alternatives and diversify their touristic services, especially now that the "Vaquita Marina Conservation campaign" is in it's imminent deployment and will be accompanied by a complete strategy directed at converting and changing most of the old fishing ways. This in direct reference to the local fisherman. The federal government is already creating funds that will encourage local commercial fisherman who now in the "protected vaquita marina zone" to switch their activities to a nondestructive profile.

Local school professor Enrique Meza requested the government representatives should prevent the closure of public beaches, since from his point of view the access to beaches is being either denied or charged throughout the San Felipe - Puertecitos corridor. To this the delegado for San Felipe, Hazael Sierra, responded that there are six public access to beaches that are currently being prepared, two of them already have been cleaned and opened [one between Club de Pesca and Campo Victor and one right next to the Habana Club]. Soon there will be an official announcement regarding the location of these six accesses to promote their use.

Ing Armando Ramos open a new order of ideas when he informed the audience about the seriousness of current problems with zona federal land limits. He commented about many irregularities and made clear that every project involving beach access has to be aware of the possibility of loosing their right to the federal zone within their property. He stated the importance of not having unfair actions between groups of the same sector.

A representative for Semarnat, a federal agency for the environment, informed that every citizen in Mexico is entitled to request a concession for federal zone. The owners of property adjacent to federal zones have priority over that land but if they don't claim it with a concession any one else being a Mexican citizen can and the government will actually grant the concession.

Finally, the secretary of tourism had a chance to start his main statement of the day: it is a fact that the local airport will be renewed after a 25 day period in which the project will be put out for contest. After the government assigns the job the contractor will have 120 to finish all details of the procces. The secretary confirmed this action will make a first class airport for SF and total investment will be 12 million pesos. The next logical step will be having regular flights into the region.

Ing Armando Ramos mentioned that the 4 lane highway will be completed by 2011 and explained the project cannot be downgraded due to the fact that SF is the first step of the escalera nautica project and the four lane highway is required for the heavy transportation needs that keep the continuation of the highway safe until its completion in 2011.

The secretary of tourism made sure the audience understood the importance of the signature by BC, Sonora, BC sur and Sinaloa, of the "Mar de Cortez: Acuario del Mundo" project in which the BC government will invest 600 thousand pesos within the next 6 months in an effort to bring order in the region.

The secretary of tourism responded when someone asked how to respond to the negative publicity campaigns coming from San Diego and other California and Arizona cities: "The state government is investing 2 million dollars to promote the state and counteract the negative effect of such attacks by creating a campaign in which BC cities ' level of violence is compared to that of major cities in the United States. By comparison, a tourist is much more exposed to a possible harmful situation in California than in Baja California", he stated as an example.

The secretary let the assistants know the Green angels now have new vehicles and they are active in all state main highways ready to assist, also the emergency number 060 has been linked to 911, so now tourists can dial 911 and will get immediate attention.

The secretary of tourism made clear that San Felipe itself has to handle it's own issues and has to come up with an strategy which then will be supported by the state government. Ing Armando Ramos explained that there is a need to recognize that SF is very fluent in real state activities and those should also participate on the creation of the fideicomiso funds, and not only expect to have resources via hotel occupation. He believes since the amount of money is so little, the fideicomiso can not break this trend of having 45% recourses destined forpayroll and administrative expenses. The secretary of tourism suggested 85% of the fideicomiso money should be put to work for SF.

The possible date for next meeting is 15 June. Secretary of tourism confirmed he will attend.